Synthesized/Revised 1+3

The collective pattern sequence of behaviors over our lives must be transformed from a mass ritual of consumption into an individual rite of production by the design of spaces that target the perception and improvement of the self, facilitating individual creativity and progress for both material and intangible purposes by acknowledging ourselves and our potential for action.

Traditional architecture focused around sacred space propagated the concept of a synthetic or virtual reality underpinning our daily experience, yet even this state of mind has been compartmentalized and commodified. The subversion of information through continued use of heraldry and symbolism in the brands, logos, and iconic images by modern propaganda’s advertising agencies, public relations firms, packaging and product designers, marketers, media broadcasters, military and industrial manufacturers, engineers, financiers, and political leaders of today has generated a consensus trance of democratic inaction and the corruption of ancient systems of place, communication, and identity. The 21^st century’s order may transform the single container into an extension of the consumer fantasy, but by housing it within a mystical or religious experience, the individual’s remembrance of the true promise of paradise, a return to the garden, will be initiated and released.

“When the cannons are heard, the muses are silent. When the cannons are silent, the muses are heard.”

Jorge Silvetti outlines a compellingly inside-looking-out point of view about the current state of architectural design in The Muses Are Not Amused... The four thinking types, Programism, Thematization, Blobs, and Literalism are succinctly effective at describing the range of options in value judgements that architects wade through when determining a proposal's proper approach. Yet somehow each outlook has a shortcoming. Programism's fall to the restrictions of media production methods, Thematization's overdependence on pre-existing styles, the much too complexly-transformed data of Blobs, and the nigh-neurological lingual restraints of freedom to Literalism's referents implies that every attempt at compressing the essence of a space into functional, material form may end in an ontological failure of some kind. Merely identifying the very specific lofty ideals undertaken by a program is unclear when contradictory positions or situations co-exist in the same space. It is the selection of pertinent terms to be enacted upon in the ensuing process that charges an idea's potency. The intentions to achieve efficiency, optimization, consolidation as well as cross-pollination, invention, compromise and controversy, are the various intermediary steps in defining a personal touch in the profession and determining an alignment with a particular theory or strategy.

The discussion about Blobs hit upon an inspiring discovery, that the latest gifts of technology are unique in their generative powers when we consider their role in history. The achievement of total freedom of form has arrested the architect of his office to affect the world, as it is in the definition of form that we mark our specialization in society, turning us now into programmers who can't code. The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture contains Greg Lynn's definition of "blobs", part of which I shall transcribe here:

"Recently, a class of topological geometric types for modeling complex aggregates that exhibit the qualities of multiplicity and singularity has been developed. The most interesing example is the development of 'isomorphic polysurfaces' or what in the special effects and animation industry is referred to as 'meta-clay', 'meta-ball' or 'blob' models. The explanation of the organisation of these topological geometries actually outlines a working schema for a new typology for complexity. [...] In this schema, there is no essential difference between a more or less spherical formation and a blob. The sphere and its provisional symmetries are merely the index of a rather low level of interactions where the blob is an index of a high degree of information in the form of differentiation between components in time. In this regard, even what seems to be a sphere is actually a blob without influence; an anexact form that merely masquerades as an exact form because it is isolated from adjacent forces."

The ability to amass data in a manner informed by a filter or generator made to produce a form leads to self-defining, autonomous systems, a sustainable path. Keying in additional layers of information - contextual, social, environmental - benefits and justifies complexity but in mapping this data to what remains a singular object, the classical model of architecture isn't so fundamentally altered. The growth of technology even in historical contexts such as the Baroque still demanded a human sensibility to the establishment of what is always a new or contemporary aesthetic. The value of the blob is in its loosening of our visual dependencies, decoupling so many aspects of what orders are present in a form. Yet while these procedures are so promising, Silvetti's argument seems to be that they haven't proven themselves as sires of architecture. While the calculating power may be there, the impetus towards intuition is not. I'll be thinking much more about the theoretical limitations and consequences of process in drafting my thesis, and what is really an ideal situation in such an imaginary world.

1 + 3 + 9

Architecture through symbolic power can be a healing agent in the cluttered chaos of a technological age by changing consumerist attitudes into responsibly managed natural and human ecological systems.

Today's successful urban spaces are characterized by a healthy mix of efficiency, density, and diversity, but this is only made possible by a responsible allocation of resources. The American failures of excess and egregious demands for energy are pitted against the incentives of developing worlds, where the lack of modern mass manufacture methods results in pollution and waste, leaving a greater potential for environmental improvement. How will the coming globalist carbon market force the construction industry and regulatory agencies to meet needs of individuals and groups across the world?

The futuristic vision of the city by science fiction writers such as Philip K. Dick is known for being filled with spaces accumulating gadgets and electronic trinkets, the garbage of a technocratic culture. As in our world, the actual location of a given experience or event is flavored or characterized by the mundane repetition and identifiable details in the daily usage of space. Symbols employed by product advertisers are the labels used by the culture of mass consumption. The paradoxical namelessness that is established as a result may inadvertently end up hurting the chances of innovative yet unconventional solutions through marginalization away from the mainstream. The transformation of the container into an extension of the consumer fantasy is akin to the process by which houses create a market of wealth in a given neighborhood. The current economic crisis is a problem of much of this wealth being imaginary or synthetic, and the challenge to artists and designers is to make material advancements still meaningful to restore the usefulness of our commercial context. The urban interactions and social sensibilities of a global city or metapolis posit the perception of space as directly affected by those placeless fixtures of culture that initially led to its oversaturation and downfall. We will need to remove redundancy in the system and consolidate the advances we've developed. Now to only narrow down the methods by which we do this.

Thesis Concept Sketch #1

I am as yet undecided on the nature of my thesis project, and think it's difficult simply wading through the large knowledge bases and improvised sets we've accumulated through our time in studio to then settle and choose a focused area of thought to fully elaborate. I've chosen to start at least initially with words in the articulation of my ideas. Even the way I consider projects has abstracted in some cases or evolved to become more aware and inclusive of the critical qualities or characteristics exhibited in a space and readable as text. Lately I have been of the opinion that the city and the built environment exist partly as a celebration of life but also as systems of controlling the population, and permeate as the results of imperial or conquering forces throughout our culture, subject to our violent history. The coordination of these systems of life and the upturning of their monetary foundation through the global recession may be something we're witnessing.

Some of these controlling measures are in terms of surveillance or the manipulation of fear tied to a war-ridden or authoritatively uncertain state. Rural, empty contexts or those closer to nature are considered in some regard the escapist option in a world attempting to come together, but electronic connectivity changes the scale at which global life is to be considered and brings a realm of simultaneous events to a single virtual location. The materials under consideration are no longer physical in nature but are also ideological, spiritual, or subjective. The way we place ourselves within and define those boundaries since ancient times have served as cornerstones of the public realm and an open discourse gaurantees a healthy progression. The structures and hierarchies that oversaw the rule of kingdoms and civilizations were manifest and brought to a height in the creation of architecture for functional as well as symbolic purposes to further a particular idea or emerging concept. Today the demands of environmental protection and the growth of the sustainability movement worldwide, in some ways place the needs of the planet above those of the population, claiming ecological salvation as the primary impetus and charge to humankind in the 21st century. The overdependence on technology may have negatively affected our approach to systems thought, as the broad spectrum of experience is inevitably condensed to a prescriptive path. Cleaning up the damage caused in past years strikes to the core of questioning the way we live. After our enormous leaps in technological development, we are left with discovering an ecological responsibility to simultaneously generate and maintain.

Response: How To Draw Up A Project

In Jose Luis Mateo's article, architecture takes on a variety of elements, frameworks, and forms that apply to physical objects as well as to conceptual references of space that encapsulate those bodies, so-called phantom functions that adopt subsequent specialized modifications. By gauging the physical potentialities of material functions, analogies such as service networks or layers of skin membranes to model architectural action stress the importance of conceptualizing space in a rudimentary structure that is still subject to natural laws. Such a perspective lends a considerable utility in the attempt to modulate energy flows and movements between given groups of these building blocks, be they even of subatomically elementary or cosmically massive scales.

A common analogy in architectural design is the use of biological organisms to model behavior of systems comprised by living things, such as trees, in the development of sequential production decisions. I'm interested in the so-called natural selection process that are undergone in simulation by the architect or designer in consideration of these social systems and traditions over time, and the selection of a certain model as being a welcome replacement or representing a valid approximation of a real-life scenario. Surely the question of architecture engenders a cornucopia of problems and our anticipation of their impact in scope is going to push the theoretical heights of computation in the coming years. The number of miscalculations that can occur is astounding, and keeping estimated accounts or designs in an open fashion makes sure that those anomalies can be anticipated and accomodated for. The unpredictable aspects of human societies seem to be most indicative of the quality of life, winding in its way.